Could Boeing HQ move be in the cards?

In May 2022, Virginia officials were in a buoyant mood as Fortune Global 500 aerospace and defense giant Boeing announced it would move its world headquarters from Chicago to Arlington County, with then-President and CEO Dave Calhoun having conferred with Gov. Glenn Youngkin months ahead about the move.

Nearly three years later, the mood is radically different. Calhoun is gone, following the January 2024 blowout of a Boeing jet’s door plug in midair, which led to federal investigations and cratering jet sales. Although the blowout didn’t claim any lives, the incident prompted further regulatory scrutiny of Boeing’s settlement with the government following two fatal crashes of 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019. In September 2024 came the hiring of new Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg, who promptly announced he would be based in Seattle, close to the company’s troubled commercial aircraft division.

Now the question is whether Boeing’s headquarters will move west with Ortberg, who has purchased a home in Seattle, according to The Seattle Times.

Boeing did not respond to questions about its plans; also unclear is the status of a research and technology hub that the company pledged to build when it announced its move to Arlington, where about 400 employees currently work.

However, Boeing, which reported annual losses of $11.83 billion for 2024, has so far resisted talk of moving its corporate headquarters from Arlington to Seattle. Last year, the Securities and Exchange Commission allowed Boeing to block a stockholder’s attempt to bring the matter up for a vote during Boeing’s May 2024 annual shareholders meeting.

Either way, while Boeing’s headquarters move there was a nice feather in Northern Virginia’s cap, “it’s not that important” in terms of Virginia’s economy if Boeing moves out of the state, says Terry Clower, director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.

“It’s all about the company and its ghastly record.”

In the meantime, Boeing has finished much of its unpleasant business. In July 2024, in a case related to fatal crashes of two 737 Max jetliners, Boeing finalized its guilty plea to a federal criminal fraud conspiracy charge, under which it will pay at least $243.6 million in fines. And in November 2024, the company reached a deal to end a machinists’ strike that halted jet production for two months.

By January, Boeing was expected to have laid off about 10% of its 170,000-person workforce, including 68 employees across Virginia. Boeing would not specify how many of those employees were at each location, or whether any of those layoffs were related to a headquarters move.

“We are adjusting our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and a more focused set of priorities,” a Boeing spokesperson said via email.